A Channel-Quality-Indication (CQI) feedback mechanism may be implemented to provide a Base Station (BS) with information regarding a condition of communication sub-channels used by one or more mobile communication devices. According to the CQI feedback mechanism, the BS may send a pilot signal to the mobile devices; a mobile device may measure a CQI value, e.g., a Carrier-to-Interference-ratio (C/I), of the communication sub-channels based on the pilot signal; the mobile device may transmit to the BS a CQI feedback corresponding to the CQI values; the BS may prioritize the mobile devices based on the CQI feedback; and/or the BS may transmit data to the prioritized mobile devices.
According to a best-M CQI feedback mechanism, each mobile device transmits to the BS the best M CQI values corresponding to M sub-channels having the highest C/I. According to a CQI feedback with hierarchical sub-channel grouping mechanism, the sub-channels can be organized hierarchically, e.g., with a tree structure, such that a group of sub-channels within the same hierarchy can share the same CQI value, e.g., as long as the combined channel is flat. According to a differential/incremental CQI feedback mechanism, the mobile device transmits to the BS only a differential or incremental part of the CQI value with relation to a previous CQI value. According to a CQI data compression mechanism, the CQI values of all sub-channels may be considered as a vector of correlated data, which may be compressed, e.g., using any suitable data compression method.